By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
BREMERTON ‑ Visiting Kingston wore down Klahowya Friday night at Silverdale Stadium 28-7 in a battle of defenses to continue unbeaten in the early Olympic League football season.
The Buccaneers, led by an ex-military man ‑ W. Todd Harder – used a bruising defense and a equally bruising running game coupled with a deft passing attack to subdue a game Klahowya team that took an early 7-0 lead, but could not sustain itself in the second half to fall to 0-2 in league (2-2 overall).
Amidst punishing hits on both sides that slowed each team’s running game, the game drew 16 penalties. But the good part of that was the referees used blue flags instead of the customary yellow to draw awareness to prostate cancer.
But between the blue flags flying, the game at times resembled a rugby scrum with bodies stacked up and runners stopped for short gains. It all started innocent enough with Klahowya, eager to prove as the smallest school in the OL that it has a big heart, used a 24-yard punt return by all-everything senior Konner Langholff (quarterback, defensive back, punt returner, punter) to the Kingston nine that set up the Eagles for their first and last score.
On third and goal from the 10, Langholff found Connor Schnuit in the end zone for a touchdown pass that put the Eagles ahead of the 3-1, 2-0 in the OL Buccaneers 7-0 with 35 seconds left in the first quarter.
It didn’t take Kingston long to counter. A 29-yard pass reception by Henry English, another player who just about does it all, from Kingston QB Bobby Reece, he of the three consecutive state wrestling titles, got the Buccaneers moving out from deep in their own territory.
Then some tough ground-pounding by senior star running back, Nick Tabanera got the Bucs close enough to allow Reece to connect with Henry Dwyer on a nine-yard scoring strike that evened the score early in the second quarter.
A six-yard punt by Langholff set the Bucs up for their go-ahead TD just before halftime. The Bucs got the ball on the Klahowya 40and Reece hit wide-out Nathan Carleton on a 26-yard strike and then a five-yarder and from there Tabanera stuck his nose into the tough Klahowya middle for two runs that netted seven yards and then he scored from about the two-inch line with nine seconds before halftime to put the Bucs ahead to stay.
But it wasn’t all that easy to stay ahead. The Klahowya Eagles, who only had 56 total yards at halftime, were stubborn and resisted with all their might and kept the deficit at 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
Even when Andrew Monlux broke through the middle of the Klahowya defense to slap down a third-quarter Langholff punt, setting the Bucs up on the Eagles’ 38, coach Dan Ericson’s troops rose to the defense. They forced the Bucs to try a 32-yard Ryan Fick field goal that went wide left to keep the score at 14-7.
It took a little English to finally enable the Bucs to break through. English, who intercepted two passes and dropped a third that was right in his hands from his safety spot, fought off two defenders, snared a Reece pass and raced 40 yards after the catch to complete a 69-yard scoring strike that put the Bucs up 21-7 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
“My quarterback trusts me and he threw it up and I just happened to go get it for him,” said English.
When Klahowya in desperation went for it on fourth down from their 22 with five minutes left in the game and failed, the game was essentially over. Langholff’s pass on fourth down went right into English’s hands, and then fell out. But the incompletion gave the Bucs a short field and they quickly took advantage of it.
Tabanera, who rushed for 114 yards, went for nine yards on the first play and 14 on the next to complete the scoring. A third interception of Langholff, this one by Garrett Rouser, led to the Bucs sitting on the two-yard line, unwilling to score again, as time expired.
The Bucs’ style under Harder, the former military guy now a Silverdale stockbroker, is to play smash mouth football. They don’t try to fancy Dan anybody, thy just line up and try to overpower people.
“We needed to come out and hit them hard at the start,” said English. “We think of ourselves as a second half team, kind of.”
The Kingston coaches don’t want their players to feel that way.
“ (Assistant) coach (Scott) McKay was joking about, ‘you don’t want to be a second-half team because that means you are not playing a full game,” Harder said. “But the kids buckled down and started playing a little less mistake football – way to many penalties.
“But you know, Henry English and Nathan Carleton made some big (passing) plays tonight and probably saved our bacon. Klahowya runs an unorthodox front and they stymied us a little bit. We figured it out late, but the passing game is what got us through the game tonight
“So it’s different for Buccaneer football to be relying on the passing game like that. But you got to get a win in league play, and we got a win tonight.”
For the record, Kingston passed for nearly as many yards (175) as it did on the ground (194).
Klahowya, on the other hand, just had 115 total yards.
Kingston now faces North Mason at home and Klahowya hosts Port Angles back here at Silverdale Stadium next Friday.
Kingston 28, Klahowya 7
Kingston 0 14 0 14 ‑ 28
Klahowya 7 0 0 0 ‑ 7
First Quarter
KL – Connor Schnuit 10 pass from Konner Langholff (Kasey Trask kick)
Second Quarter
KI – Henry Dwyer 9 pass from Bobby Reece (Ryan Fick kick)
KI – Nick Tabanera 1 run (Fick kick)
Fourth Quarter
KI – Henry English 69 pass from Reece (Fick kick)
KI – Tabanera 14 run (Fick kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing – KI: Tabanera 25-114; Aaron Dickson 8-58; Garrett Rouser 4-30; Reece 4 (-8). KL: Jon Harris 7-17; Latrell Simpson 16-52; Konner Langholff 14-20.
Passing – KI: Reece 12-7-0-175. KL: Konner Langholff 13-3-3-26.
Receiving – KI: Nathan Carleton 3-51; Henry English 2-98; Rouser 1-17; Dwyer 1-9. KL: Matthew Scarborough 1-15; Schnuit 1-10; Keigen Langholff 1-1.